Hey guys, I thought I'd make a detailed Belmont run guide for the forum, seeing as what we're currently using is a GameFAQs speed-run guide that can be modified to make our achievement easier to unlock! Basically I'll be taking the speed-run's route but explaining how best to slowly make your way through the rooms to maximise your safety, rather than mastering precision jumps and special attacks to zoom over dangers.

So with that said, before I continue I'd like to give credit to WonderLlama of GameFAQs for the route that got me my achievement (found in his guide HERE (http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/937723-castlevania-symphony-of-the-night/faqs/8168)), and also to our own x360a member Noxic, for posting up some large photos of the maps which I have drawn over because I lack a decent camera :p

Here is the route this guide will be taking; open them up in a separate window or whatever and then just match the room numbers to the paragraphs below:

Saving as JPEGs have made the quality a bit hard to see, so sorry about that- the only thing that's really tricky is the Save Room green lines, though you should really know where they are by now if you're going for this achievement anyway.

Seeing as there are quite a lot of rooms to traverse, I'll only be making notes on the rooms that I feel require them. Let's begin!

Note that this may not be the best route through the game as far as safety is concerned- I wouldn't know personally as I've only played the game a couple months. I do know however, that this is still a very safe route, and if it's the speed-run's route of choice we may as well attempt to save ourselves some time haha.

1: Just thrown it in so you know where to start looking at the map, really.

2: It's better to get this in your head right from the start; be cautious! Don't rush through the rooms, even the zombies in this corridor will do big damage to Richter. Take your time, and make it a habit to pick up hearts from any candles you see.

3: As you super-jump up to this square of the map, there's a Heart upgrade in the room to your left- that's 30 hearts! This saves time hunting candles, so pick it up then continue along.

Save room #1- follow the green line to use the first save room if you want, then make your way back to the red (or purple, apparently...stupid JPEGs :p) line.

4: Similarly, as you super jump up to this square there is a Life upgrade in the room to your right- supposedly this does improve Richter's health, so let's pick it up and then continue super-jumping up.

5: This is where we get our holy water weapon, break the candle in this square and then hold onto it for the rest of the game! If you accidentally drop it and it vanishes before you can get it back, you may as well reload the save. The upcoming Ctulhu should fly away from you, if you repeatedly whip him in the air he'll be dead before he even turns around.

6: These annoying little ghosts are best simply avoided rather than attacking, run under and jump over them while progressing left. Alternatively, just item crash and run on through, seeing as there's an abundance of hearts.

7: Skelerangs are highly damaging, so hydro storm these guys- if you jump onto the first ledge before using the item crash, you can then jump again which will raise the crash's range and kill the very highest one.

8: Play it safe, hit the Plate Lord a couple times then run away and wait for him to attack before trying to finish him off. You'll be able to get most of your hearts back in this corridor as well.

Save room #2- follow the green line again, watch out for the Ouija Table that guards the room's entrance though.

9: Diplocephalis dies in two hits, so don't be worried about them- just walk up to them and take them out before they can attack. Stone Roses die in two hits too but be more careful around them and aim for the head- you can probably get away with using item crashes here if you want to (along with the unlisted rooms that lead up to this point), but I've been saving the hearts for the Inverted Castle so far.

10: Super-jump up into this square and the vase on the right has a Life upgrade. As you make your way up to the top of the outer wall, kill everything you want other than the Sword Lord who you can just avoid- everything dies in one hit except the Axe Knight which takes two, so it‘s better to just kill them rather than risk being hit.

Save Room #3- definitely save here, because this is the most annoying part of the Normal Castle.

11: Super-jump to the top of the screen, and then continue to do them mid-air to cross over to the top-left exit.

12: The candle in this room holds a knife, so either avoid hitting it entirely or hit it, and fend off the Medusa Heads while you wait for it to disappear.

13: Walk in, item crash, walk to the left to land on a small platform and left again to land on a revolving gear. Fall down to the right and this should kill every Harpy in the room, provided your hydro storm is still active. Now take your time leaving to avoid picking up the special weapon that is laying around (what is that thing supposed to be anyway, magic dust?)- go the left route across the gears rather than falling farther down to the right, as you may land on the spikes below.

14: If you continuously super-jump up and to the left, you should be able to leave this room without being hit by the Harpies- don't get caught under the exit's ledge, though! Alternatively, shoot off another item crash and then super-jump while it's active.

15: The Sword Lords in this room will turn into Vandal Swords when killed- defeat the Lords at max distance with the whip and then stand still mashing the whip button, it should kill the Vandal at this distance without putting yourself in danger. If you're low on hearts, the next exit takes you to a room with candles and no enemies- you will need an item crash for labelled room #16, so farm them if you have to by exiting the room (using the right exit!) and re-entering.

16: Karasuman dies in one item crash- pick up your Life upgrade and exit left :p

Save room #4- the final save room in the Normal Castle.

Didi Mau

07-03-2010, 12:17 PM

17: Now you're in the Inverted Castle, you can expect to take a whole lot of damage from pretty much everything- I'll be whoring item crashes a lot more now (to be honest, we could have probably whored them a lot more in the Normal Castle too haha).

Save room #5- don't miss this one!

18: Just like Karasuman, Darkwing Bat only takes a single item crash to die. Take the Life upgrade and carry on.

19: Be extremely careful in this room! Bombs will practically kill you in one hit, though luckily the knights at the top of the screen cannot throw any without hitting the ceiling. As you enter, walk forward until you see a Bomb Knight. Use an item crash and then walk a little to the left to kill another knight. Now, use the spiked chandelier to jump up to the top of the screen and make your way across to the left, whipping any knights that get in the way. One of the candles here drops a special weapon, so be careful if you're collecting hearts.

20: If you're fast, you can super-jump through this room and not get hit at all- alternatively, once you enter the room super-jump once and you'll land on a revolving gear. Item crash from this platform and then super-jump to the exit, it'll kill every Cloaked Knight.

21: As soon as you enter this room, item crash and then make your way down the right hand side, it‘ll kill every Cloaked Knight. There are two special weapons in this room so be careful to keep hold of your holy water! This is the room I messed up when I was first going for the achievement, I saved without noticing my error and had to start again from the beginning.

22: Just as a general note; this large area has Valhalla Knights on the ground and a special weapon in one of the ceiling torches, which can be accidentally picked up when super-jumping. So, I suggest trying to hover your super-jumps across the room above the enemies, but not too high in case you lose your holy water.

Save room #6- You've just passed what I consider the hardest part of the run, so save and congratulate yourself or something haha. I have 64 hearts at this point, and am about to whore a lot of them- if you have less, don't be afraid to whore them with me, because we'll be farming some more soon.

23: As you make your way up the outer wall, you'll find really annoyingly placed Jack-O-Bones on top of ledges, ricocheting bones down towards you. These do a lot of damage, so if you have the hearts to spare use an item crash and then super-jump onto their ledge. There's sometimes another skeleton above them, so if you can super-jump fast enough the hydro storm will kill them as well. If you don't have enough hearts to crash them then you can destroy the bones with your whip and either super-jump up there to kill them, or wait them out until they jump down to fight you.

24: This is where we'll stop briefly to farm some hearts for the final push of the game. Head to the right, kill each of the Paranthropus (they only take one hit), and use the two torches in the vertical room outside of save room #7 to get ten hearts. Enter and exit the room to get another ten hearts, and repeat- if you exit via the bottom-left however be careful of the boss “The Creature” who's inside the room (however, if you have enough hearts for two item crashes just save the game and then kill him to get another Life Upgrade!). Once you've got 90+ hearts, carry on with the route.

25: Keep an eye out in the following rooms for the spike traps that will rush you if you stand in between them- if you see a section has them, stand on top of the closest one then jump into the middle of the two and immediately jump over the final one. When there's a Jack-O-Bones in between the traps, stand on the closest one again and just stay there crouch-whipping until the skeleton walks into range.

26: This square has a set of spike traps with a Jack-O-Bones in between them, and a Nova Skeleton on a ledge high up. Item crash the two skeletons and then super-jump up to where the Nova Skeleton was which should kill another Jack-O-Bones which was off-screen. If it doesn't, do another item crash anyway :p Super-jump up again to another ledge and do one more item crash to kill the Jack-O-Bones before he ricochets a bone off the ceiling to hit you.

27: Here we're going to abuse the fact there's no enemies and farm some more hearts. Replenish yourself back up to 99 and then go east to use them all up again! One item crash will kill a Guardian, but be careful because they can attack whilst getting hurt- if they use their blue flame projectile it can last long enough to hit you after your crash's invincibility has run out. I suggest walking forward enough to see the first guardian, then crashing at max range so it won't bring up its shield. When it begins its dying animation walk forward to lure out a Blade then crash again to kill it in one hit. Finally kill the second Guardian like you did the first to get to the clock tower.

Save room #8- the achievement has practically popped itself now :p

28: One item crash kills Shaft! He can attack while being hurt, but if you've used the save room you shouldn't die from it even if it does hit (and crouching in the bottom-right should avoid any attacks).

Well done, you've just finished the game as Richter! I'm sure there's an even easier method than this considering we have 99 hearts for the majority of the Normal Castle, but considering how it's pretty easy already me going back and figuring out just how many hydro storms can be whored there is pretty pointless. If you happen to find yourself dying in Normal Castle, just abuse item crashes and then farm the hearts back in Dracula's room by using the castle-to-castle teleport :)

UCB Disco

07-03-2010, 12:33 PM

Cool. Thanks. This is the only achievement I have left, so this should be helpful. :woop:

Heart Break Cid

07-10-2010, 10:47 PM

Thanks once more, made this run a whole lot easier!

Andrew x360a

07-28-2010, 12:33 AM

Fantastic job dude! Do you mind if I link to this thread from the guide on the main site. You've done a great job and I'd love to see it as part of the regular guide.

Thanks a lot for this awesome lil guide! Not only did it get me my 100% for this game but I really enjoyed following it. Have you done any other guides? If not you should definitely consider it :)

Thanks again!

rjones1219

08-08-2010, 12:16 PM

Fantastic Guide Bro I thought I would never get this achievement .... the only problem I had is I never learned how to super jump so it probably took me twice as long as the rest of the folks but even with my half-a$# skill of super jumping I got the achievement. Thanks again

daevv

08-10-2010, 04:35 AM

Just used your guide and got the achievement in no time! I now have 200/200 in this great game. Thx!

~d

koopi

08-18-2010, 12:01 AM

Thanks for the guide, it really helped! :)

DURRRTY HARRY

08-19-2010, 09:25 AM

yes thank you!! your guide worked perfectally for me now i have 100% on this game! :woop::woop::woop::drunk

Thehefferkiller

08-20-2010, 07:58 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr7naMh5UiY

UCB Disco

08-23-2010, 10:42 AM

I commented on this earlier, because I had only started my Belmont run of SotN. Thanks to the first round of Medusa heads, I put the game down out of frustration and started playing other things.

However, after spending the past couple weeks on Harmony of Despair, I figured it was time to 100% this game. I go in as Richter like a whole new player, and busted through this guide in 30 minutes.

Seriously, thanks a ton. Not only was this quick, but it was surprisingly a breeze (Outside of having to farm for hearts here and there). Finally finished with this game. :woop:

UCB Disco

08-23-2010, 10:52 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr7naMh5UiY

Seriously, dude, the only thing that was slow in this video was the elevator up to Shaft. That was ridiculously fast. hahaha.

masiyeah

10-24-2010, 08:52 PM

good work! thank you!!!!

PSMsoldier

12-03-2010, 01:36 AM

That was handy. Thanks! :D

Johiden

12-07-2010, 07:37 AM

Finally got all 200 belmonts revenege was the last one. Thanks for the great guide it helped out quite bit.

Cringer85

12-10-2010, 06:43 PM

what the hell is an item crash? I used y button and after that a couple of normal attacks on Karusaman. He didn't die and then killed me!!! WTF=?!

Edit: ok. Seems I didn't hit him with the y weapon. I only now understand the concept of that attack. The crosses actually do have to hit my enemy. lol. always wondered, what it did...

The Slurbs

01-01-2011, 03:38 AM

Great guide. It took just over a half hour and I only died two or three times, would have been zero but I didn't realize just how much I could abuse the item crash. I only dropped below 50 hearts once, so I always had 3 spare item crash uses.

Also, it's been so long since I played that I forgot that map was LT until after I finished my run, that would have made it a little easier to follow the guide.

makecrack

02-01-2011, 02:04 AM

thanks a ton for this guide i just used the maps and got the achievement on a game file with less than an hour on it!

Herr Shaun

03-04-2011, 05:40 AM

Awesome guide. I'd have been stuck many times were it not for this. Thanks so much for posting it! :D

Kind of wished I had looked at this before I started my run. Died too many times, and didn't know of a decent way to run through it. Thanks for postin this. Made it through without dyin, and in just about an hour.

ShadyChicano

11-11-2011, 02:42 PM

worked like a charm thank u very much

MasaTFC

02-20-2012, 10:04 PM

can this get a "sticky"? please?

TheOrionEnigma

04-03-2012, 10:34 PM

I know its an old post, but this guide really helped.... I was tired of the Supreme Vampire Hunter taken down by a tiny bat syndrome :)

matarael

04-25-2012, 10:32 AM

I followed the ricter speed run video off youtube but took me a few hours to do mainly cause of inverted castle I went the opposite way from the outer walls through the watch towers and kept dying between that savepoint and the one near the chapel. Easy tho when I made it to Shaft.

webah!

05-11-2012, 03:12 PM

Your my hero. 4 years after I started playing this and I finally have my 200 points! Thank you :)

lornesbored

05-20-2012, 02:11 AM

With your guides I finished the game in 32 mins :) thanks!

Tony 10 Dimes

12-06-2012, 02:31 AM

Big thanks has to go out. Your guide worked like a charm.

freaks

01-26-2013, 05:42 AM

The first castle... We could use the stairs and get directly there on the left... Why all the detour?

Didi Mau

01-26-2013, 10:30 AM

The first castle... We could use the stairs and get directly there on the left... Why all the detour?

Do you mean to take the north-west route through the castle instead of the clock tower? I link the guide that I took the route from in the first post, so that's why the route is what it is- as the route is relatively safe for casual players, I didn't bother checking for other, possibly faster, paths (the whole playthrough only takes about an hour as it is).

UGA2000

04-23-2013, 02:54 AM

Six years, start to finish. Gotta be the longest 200 ever, but your guide's the only reason I got it. Appreciate the work, bro.